One said: ‘It has haunted me for a long time, that I could have helped, and I didn’t know.

‘Chadrack needed feeding and watering. He passed away because he was hungry, not because something happened to him.’

The 35-year-old mother told the Hackney Gazette: ‘I keep thinking to myself: “Did I hear him? Did I hear him next door?” But he never spoke. Never. He just hid behind his mum and held onto her clothes. He couldn’t even call out or speak through the letterbox.’

Chadrack’s mother posted a picture of her son in his uniform on Facebook with the single word: ‘Love’.

A month later Chadrack was found after he died of malnutrition and dehydration.